Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack gather for 65th anniversary reunion

Nearly 500 aging survivors will gather in Hawaii Thursday to mark the 65th anniversary of the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor by Japanese fighter planes.

The survivors of the December 7, 1941 attack have reunited at Pearl Harbor every five years since the 25th anniversary in 1966.

But organizers of this year's event say this will probably be the last of its kind, with the men now in their 80s and 90s. Many have died since the last reunion in 2001, while the rest have become too ill and frail to travel.

Historians are gathered at this year's reunion to collect written and oral histories of the attack from the survivors, which will be part of a new $50 million museum and visitor center.

More than 2,300 American servicemen were killed in the daring aerial attack, which nearly crippled the U.S. Pacific fleet. Five battleships were sunk, several others severely damaged, and hundreds of fighter planes destroyed during the raid.

The attack, described by then-President Franklin Roosevelt as "a day that will live in infamy," drew the United States into World War II against the Axis powers of Japan, Germany and Italy.